On December 7th, 2016 a resident in the 1400 block of Artisan Court reported that he responded to a Craigslist ad for the purpose of hiring a moving company. The homeowner communicated with the suspect via email and negotiated a price to move his belongings to another state.
The suspect arrived later at the victim's home and collected the fee for the moving job. While on scene, the suspect contacted his "employees" and gave them the address for the homeowner. He then left. The movers arrived on scene and loaded the homeowner's valuables onto the moving truck and then requested payment. It was at this time that both the homeowner, and the movers, realized that they had been scammed by the suspect. The movers advised that they, too had responded to a Craigslist advertisement for movers needed. The movers advised that they had been told that they would be paid half of their fee once the items were loaded onto the moving truck and the other half when they finished the move process.
In this case, both the homeowner and movers were scammed. The homeowner lost the money he had given the suspect, and the movers lost potential income after loading a truck full of the homeowner's items and not receiving any compensation for doing so.
This case has been assigned to the UMTPD Criminal Investigations Division.
